Hans Memling or Memlinc was born in the Middle Rhenish town of Seligenstadt. He is first recorded in Bruges in 1465, when he acquired citizenship. He was active in that city, working largely for the merchant class and resident foreign communities, until his death on 11 August 1494. His compositions and figure types show a debt to Rogier van der Weyden, and Vasari called him a disciple of Rogier. It has therefore been assumed that he worked in Van der Weyden's Brussels workshop in the years preceding that master's death in 1464. Memling's art shows little or no trace of his German heritage, but there is no documentary evidence to indicate whether he received his artistic training in Germany or Flanders or how old he was upon settling in Bruges. [Hand, John Oliver, and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1986: 184.]
Artist Bibliography
1901
Weale, W. H. James. Hans Memling. London, 1901.
1942
Baldass, Ludwig von. Hans Memling. Vienna, 1942.
1963
Folie, Jacqueline. "Les oeuvres authentifiées des primitifs flamands." Bulletin de l'Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique 6 (1963): 225-229.
1967
Friedländer 1928, vol. 6 (vol. 6a, 1971).
1971
McFarlane, K. B. Hans Memling. Edited by Edgar Wind. Oxford, 1971.
1986
Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1986: 184.